Regionals: Lady Huskies roll past Huntsville
JACKSONVILLE -- The high school basketball regional tournaments got going Wednesday, with several local teams playing at the Class 7A Northeast Regional at Pete Mathews Coliseum on the campus of Jacksonville State University.
Lady Huskies roll
The Hewitt-Trussville girls are no stranger to the regional semifinals and looked the part on Wednesday. The Lady Huskies locked down Huntsville all game, cruising to a 56-30 win.
“They’re used to the noise,” Hewitt-Trussville head coach Tonya Hunter said. “We talked about it. If you’re locked in, you can hear the calls. They did a good job of locking in tonight.”
The game featured a slow start for both sides, but Hewitt-Trussville took a 4-3 lead with 2:29 to play in the first quarter and never trailed again. The second quarter was a little sluggish as well, with Hewitt taking just a 17-9 lead into halftime.
Hewitt outscored Huntsville 13-6 in the third quarter to pull away and finished things off with a strong final quarter.
“Our ball movement wasn’t where it needed to be, but we did some things defensively to hold them down a little bit,” Hunter said. “We found our flow coming into the second half.”
Hewitt-Trussville was the Class 7A runner-up two years ago, but fell in the regional final last season. The trio of Jordan Hunter, Audre Benson and April Hooks have been key contributors for several years now, and they are determined to “finish” the job this year.
“That’s our word that we go to,” said Benson, who led the team with 16 points and 4 steals on the day.
Hooks and Jordan Hunter each finished with 12 points and talked about the team not being satisfied with simply being at this stage.
“We’ve been here before, but being here is not enough anymore,” Jordan Hunter said.
Lilly Gray went for 7 points and 10 rebounds, while Sara Phillips pulled down 8 rebounds as well.
Hewitt-Trussville will face Sparkman in the regional final Tuesday at 9 a.m., back at Jacksonville State.
Jags hang on in overtime
The Spain Park boys leaned on their vast postseason experience over the last few years to prevail in a 54-52 overtime win over Sparkman in the regional semifinals Wednesday morning.
Spain Park saw its eight-point lead dwindle over the course of the fourth quarter, as Sparkman tied the game at 42-42 with 1:37 to play. The Jags got up by four with a minute to play, but Sparkman rallied again, hitting a basket at the end of regulation to force overtime.
The Jags were able to refocus, though, and get the advantage right from the start in overtime. Chase James knocked down a 3-pointer to give them the early lead, and Zach Gray’s jumper with 47 seconds to play gave his team the lead for good.
“Our kids just showed a lot of poise and grit,” Spain Park head coach Chris Laatsch said.
Sam Wright led Spain Park with 21 points in the contest and continued his strong play of late. He also added 10 rebounds in a double-double. Wright credited the quality of Spain Park’s daily practices for the team being able to keep its poise over the course of the game.
“Sam has been really good for us down the stretch,” Laatsch said. “In the area championship, he was unbelievable. He’s a winner of a person, a winner of a kid and a winner of a player.”
Gray finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds, while James had 6 points, none bigger than his overtime 3. Both guys have been part of Spain Park’s recent success, as the Jags have advanced to the final four each of the last two years.
“This is our fourth straight regional and these guys have been to the final four twice in a row. These guys being here in this environment and arena has helped them,” Laatsch said.
Karmel Montgomery led Sparkman with 13 points.
Spain Park advances to the regional final to play Huntsville on Tuesday at Jacksonville State at 10:45 a.m.
Strong Huntsville team takes down Eagles
The Oak Mountain boys had their season ended Wednesday afternoon, falling to Huntsville XX-XX.
Huntsville held a 12-10 lead after the first quarter, but the Panthers pulled away with a strong second quarter, taking a 27-17 lead into the halftime break.
Huntsville effectively ended the game in the third quarter, dominating the period and outscoring Oak Mountain 25-4.
“This was a game that we felt like we had a chance and an opportunity to go out and compete with them,” Oak Mountain head coach Joel Floyd said. “If we played our best, we could get one. But we didn’t do that today. They were really good.”
Huntsville outrebounded Oak Mountain 43-20, including 18 offensive rebounds for the Panthers.
Oak Mountain finished the season with a 23-9 record in Joel Floyd’s first season as head coach. Along the way, the Eagles won the regular season Area 6 title and finished as the runner-up in the area tournament.
Even after last year’s record-setting graduating class, Floyd and this season’s seven seniors were determined to prove that Oak Mountain basketball would remain a factor.
“We’ve established in our locker room that this is who we’re going to be,” Floyd said. “This is not going to be a one-time thing, we’re going to be here next year.”
Matt Heiberger capped off his career with 16 points and will soon shift his focus to the Oak Mountain baseball team. He is headed to play baseball at the University of Alabama, and is glad he decided to come back for one last season on the hardwood.
“It was a great decision to come back and it was a great time,” he said.
Floyd spoke glowingly of Heiberger and Thomas, noting Thomas’ impact on the team despite not playing many varsity minutes before this season. In addition to them, Bobby Laury, Devan Moss, Braxton DiOrio, Jack Ronilo and Eli Love were seniors.
Simon Walker led Huntsville with 19 points.
Huntsville will take on Spain Park in the regional final Tuesday.
Lady Hornets fall short
The Chelsea girls wrapped up their first season as a 7A program with a 61-41 loss to Sparkman in the regional semifinals Wednesday morning.
Sparkman got out to a 17-13 lead after a quarter of play, but Chelsea cut the deficit to 22-20 midway through the second quarter. That is when the game flipped, though, as Sparkman called timeout and immediately went on a 14-4 run to close the quarter and take a 36-24 lead into the halftime break.
“We ran into a buzzsaw a couple different times, when they went to a 1-3-1 [zone defense] and we struggled with it,” Chelsea head coach Jason Harlow said.
After a slow third quarter for both sides, Sparkman put the game away in the fourth quarter.
Chelsea finished the season with a 23-9 record, advancing to the regional tournament for the fifth consecutive season. The Lady Hornets had been to regionals just twice in program history before this run began.
Sophia Brown, who capped off her career with 10 points and 5 rebounds in the game, has been a part of all five of those teams. She is one of seven seniors, joining Zamar’ya Cook, Madison Moore, Nora Breedlove, Lexi Redd, Hardy Erwin and Makenzie Fennell.
Brown missed her junior season, while Redd worked to get back from a knee injury for the stretch run this year.
“I’m proud of my seven seniors for what they’ve been able to accomplish at Chelsea over the last four years,” Harlow said. “I’m very fortunate that I’ve been able to coach them at Chelsea.”
On Wednesday, Sparkman’s Kennedy Langham led all scorers with 26 points. Sophomore Haley Trotter posted a double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds for Chelsea. Moore finished with 8 points and 5 boards.
This season, Chelsea won the Spartan Turkey Jam and Oak Mountain Lady Eagles Christmas Classic Tournament, and finished second in Area 6 to Hewitt-Trussville.